How do they "monitor" the Extra Magic Hours?

[KevinPage]

When the parks stay open 3 extra hours at night, how do they know who is a Resort Guest or not?

Do they give you a wrist band like during the hard ticket event?

I would think it would be hard to get out all the people who are not staying at a resort, unless there was some type of "check and balance" (or they are going on the Honor System)

 

[ButtClown44]

The resort guests have to get a wristband just like an E-ride. I don't think they kick regular guests out of the park. The only thing they can do is buy merchandise or food so it would be to disneys advantage to leave them in the park.

 

[Cosmo]

cool! is that true??? cuz if it is, that totally rocks, especially at epcot. we usually just go for the food and atmosphere anyways...if they don't kick you out, then we could just hang out! :sohappy:

 

[MicBat]

You just present your room key at one of the many wristband distribution centers. All you really need is your room key. If anyone comes up and doesn't have a bracelet, we just ask to see their room key and suggest they might want to check into getting a wristband b/c they'll be asked to take their room key out when getting onto the other attractions.

 

[SpecialK]

Extra Magic Hours Answers

Extra Magic Hours are essentially for Resort Guests. The hours are different for each park on different nights.
If you want to participate in evening hours, by 6pm you go to a specific location in whichever park is offering them to receive a wristband. {All family members must be together to get your bands, they won't give "one for my kid/wife/brother" to you. Children under 3 will not need a wristband.}
Beginning at Park Closing, attractions and restaurants start screening for wristbands. Fastpass locations will issue only to quests with wristbands. Day guests will be "cycled out" of ride queues and attractions. From experience, the food carts that are open that late aren't too fussy about the bands.
We have stayed later just to get some fantastic pix of the parks at night

 

[DMC-12]

Whats always fun is when people have no clue (or pretend not to at least) and the ride load CM tries to explain this to the guest who has no wrist band... The guest then gets upset (or plays dumb and insists on getting on the ride) resulting on holding up the whole line. :brick: :hammer:

 

[Jeff D]

How are AP holders handles for this? are they treated as normal guests or eligible for a wristband?

 

[SpecialK]

If the AP holder is staying at a WDW resort = wristband.
If not...oh well.

 

[SHOBRO856]

Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the Extra Magic hour only applied to early morning entry, I was not aware they do this for closing hours as well. I'll be going down in September (17th - 26th). Have they done this around that time of year and if so what are the times.

 

[BRER STITCH]

It was a TEST during MAY......it's pretty much over for now.

 

[SpecialK]

Yes, the May test period ends Saturday, 22 May.
Once the results are evaluated, a decision of whether it is cost effective to institute Extra Magical Hours in the evenings will be made. I wouldn't be the least surprised to find that it is "a keeper."
So far, the feedback from guests interviewed/polled have been exceptionally favorable. The the morning EMH have been around for a long time and have an excellent participation average; the evening EMH have been averaging 8000-10000.

 

[awallaceunc]

Originally posted by SHOBRO856
Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the Extra Magic hour only applied to early morning entry, I was not aware they do this for closing hours as well. I'll be going down in September (17th - 26th). Have they done this around that time of year and if so what are the times.

So stay tuned, and you might luck up in time for your visit!

-Aaron

 

[HauntedPirate]

Yes, the evening EMH was a test from May 9-May 22. We were extremely disappointed that we couldn't take advantage of it (were at the Studios on May 9 while the EMH was at Epcot). But I think it's a great idea. Not everyone can/wants to get up an 1-2 hours early just to get an hour of some rides in the parks. Although it's nice to have the option. This last trip, we used the EMH at MK basically to get us to the park by 9am. :lol:

 

[Mickeyman819]

Originally posted by HauntedPirate
Not everyone can/wants to get up an 1-2 hours early just to get an hour of some rides in the parks. Although it's nice to have the option. This last trip, we used the EMH at MK basically to get us to the park by 9am. :lol:

I kinda disagree with that. im not trying to seem like a bad guy but i didnt mind waking up and hour earlier if i was going to get my moneysworth. we got to magic kingdom on May 21 at 8:15 and got all of tommorow land except CoP and started on fantsyland b4 the park even opened. we had the park compleley done by 4 . we didnt hve to meet our mom and dad until 8 30 so we went over to the grand floridian and walked around and sat by the pool. so i didnt mind waking up early'

 

[HauntedPirate]

I wasn't trying to say that everyone wants to sleep in. Far from it, I think it's a nice thing to do to "reward" resort guests. I merely was trying to state that not everyone wants to do an early morning, and that the extra evening hours may appeal to more guests.

I don't mind waking up an hour earlier to get to MK at 8am. I just can't do it when I'm out until midnight the night before.

 

[tbell]

they have checkpoints.... they ask you to show you your armbands..... we had to do this before we reentered they asked us to show our armbands....

 

[ToTBellHop]

the Evening hours are definitely more popular...Magic Kingdom was PACKED last Wednesday, even with the extra attractions open. Most of the rides had very short waits, however, which was very nice, and they let you pretty much get unlimited Fastpasses (I had active fastpasses for Space Mountain, Pooh, Peter Pan, Big Thunder, and Splash at the same time...they let you get a new Fastpass every 5-10 minutes). It's a fantastic offering!